Carlist Wars: Part I Fueros or revolution
FUEROS OR REVOLUTION
An in-depth look at the conflicts and politics that ravaged 19th-century Spain
In the first of his two-part series, renowned historian and journalist Manuel Martorell discusses the emergence of Carlism, the 19th century dynastic clashes that ripped Spain apart and the events that sowed the seeds of conflict in the following century
Carlism can lay claim to being one of the oldest political movements in Europe. Founded more than two centuries ago Carlism enjoyed an extraordinary level of popular support across much of Spain and gave rise to three civil wars between 1833 and 1876, conflicts that dealt a severe blow to the cause of liberal reform.
The spark that ignited the Carlist uprising and the confrontation between liberals and those known as traditionalists had its roots in the dynastic conflict caused by the sudden and ultimately fatal illness of King Fernando VII in September 1832. The ideological clashes that raged in the Spanish Court prompted the ailing
“CARLISM ENJOYED AN EXTRAORDINARY LEVEL OF POPULAR SUPPORT ACROSS MUCH OF SPAIN AND GAVE RISE TO THREE CIVIL WARS BETWEEN 1833 AND 1876”
monarch to successively approve and then repeal what was called the “pragmatic sanction”.
Fernando was determined to see his daughter Isabel, who was not even two years old at the time, confirmed as Spain’s future queen under the regency of his wife María Cristina. This ran contrary to a piece of legislation enshrined in Salic Law under which limitations were placed on the right of female access to the throne. Fernando’s opponents rallied to the cause of the king’s brother Carlos María Isidro, who they proclaimed to be the rightful heir.
Federico Suárez, one of the leading historians of this dynastic conflict, maintains that the liberal bourgeoisie, taking advantage of the king’s illness,
came together in a coup that was in reality nothing short of a revolution.
Supporters of the liberal movement, composed of a minority confined to the large cities, the Mediterranean coast, Andalucía and some prosperous Cantabrian enclaves, closed ranks around María Cristina in defiance of the supporters of Don Carlos. The Carlists were drawn mainly from rural Spain, which at that time accounted for almost 80 per cent of the country’s economy. They also drew a limited amount of support from segments of the urban population. After carrying out a broad purge of Carlists within the army and the government, the ruling liberal party focused their efforts on restoring the values set out in the Cádiz Constitution of 1812, Europe’s first national charter which enshrined the doctrines of liberalism.
The objective was to dismantle the structures inherited from the old regime under Fernando VII, which they interpreted as an obstacle to their political and economic policies. They were particularly determined to curtail the powerful influence of the Catholic church and Spain’s ancient regional laws, or fueros, which granted the Basque Country and Navarre special privileges such as their own tax collection system, the right to refuse to serve in the Spanish armed forces and ownership of vast estates that were administered along feudal traditions.
The Carlists, on the contrary, considered a written constitution unnecessary. Spain’s old traditional kingdoms, such as Navarre, claimed to have their own government structures, under which the Spanish monarchy was considered part of a federative structure. They were also fierce defenders of the church, in what was largely a rural society.
This situation gave rise to the concept of the ‘Two Spains’, each incompatible with one another’s political and social values. It was only a matter of time before these irreconcilable camps were to engage in open warfare.
That moment came on the death of Fernando VII on 27 September 1833 when Don Carlos and everything he stood for was denounced as anathema to the infant queen’s adherents, the Cristino liberals. At first, numerous factions emerged from Carlist strongholds across
“THIS SITUATION GAVE RISE TO THE CONCEPT OF THE ‘TWO SPAINS’, EACH INCOMPATIBLE WITH ONE ANOTHER’S POLITICAL AND SOCIAL VALUES. IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THESE IRRECONCILABLE CAMPS WERE TO ENGAGE IN OPEN WARFARE”
“THE CRISTINOS BURNT CROPS AND DESTROYED FLOUR MILLS IN ENEMY TERRITORY. THEY ALSO SET FIRE TO THE VILLAGE OF LECÁROZ AFTER EXECUTING ONE OUT OF EVERY FIVE MALE INHABITANTS”
Spain to proclaim the legitimacy of their leader, whom they considered to be King Carlos V. Nevertheless almost all army garrisons remained faithful to María Cristina and her liberal party supporters.
General Pedro Sarsfield, a Spanish army commander of Irish descent, was one of the first to take to the field of battle, leading the liberal army of Navarre in what became the
First Carlist War. His task was to disperse the forces of Jerónimo Merino, a former priest and guerrilla fighter, who had gained notoriety as one of the heroes of the Peninsular Wars.
Sarsfield’s objective was to defeat Merino and capture the two key Basque cities of Bilbao and Vitoria, which were in the hands of the insurgents. The top military commander loyal to Don Carlos was Field Marshal Santos Ladrón de Cegama, who managed to escape liberal forces in the northern city of Valladolid. On 30 September Santos reached Logroño and rode on to Pamplona at the head of a small column. He was defeated and captured in a battle around Pamplona and executed four days later.
After the execution of Santos Colonel
Tomás Zumalacárregui, who was stationed in Pamplona and was suspected of Carlist sympathies, deserted from the queen’s army. In mid-november he took command of the rebel forces in Estella, one of the main Carlist bastions in the Navarre region. The appearance of Zumalacárregui on the scene was providential. In just two months he managed to raise a small but highly disciplined army of 3,000 men, a force that proved itself more than capable of confronting the Cristino troops.
Establishing his base of operations in the Urbasa mountain range he launched successive campaigns moving his battalions swiftly through the Basque-navarre region. In rapid succession he defeated the troops of ten loyalist generals. By 1834 the conflict had reached an impressive level of cruelty. The Cristinos burnt crops and destroyed flour mills in enemy territory. They also set fire to the village of Lecároz after executing one out of every five male inhabitants.
On both sides prisoners-of-war were routinely executed by firing squad, most outrageously in the village of Heredia, where
118 liberal prisoners were shot on the orders of Zumalacárregui. The atrocities continued until April 1835 when the British government envoy Lord Eliot drew up a treaty under which both sides agreed to abide by the rules of warfare.
By June of that year, Queen Isabel’s 200,000-strong army had to acknowledge it had failed to put down the Carlist forces of almost the same size, many of whom were operating as guerrilla bands in parts
of the country. Both sides used mainly the same weapons. The infantry had rifles with bayonets of three edges and the cavalry used swords, spears and short-barrelled shotguns called tercerolas. The Carlist troops were distinguished by their berets, most of which were red, adorned with a yellow tassel. This became the symbol of Carlism, along with the white flag and red Cross of Burgundy.
The Carlists held a firm grip on the Basquenavarre region, with the exception of the provincial capitals. The moment had now arrived for the rebels to set out to conquer a major city that they could designate as their capital. Zumalacárregui set off to lay siege to Bilbao, but in mid-june, while surveying the enemy lines, he was wounded by a stray bullet and died nine days later. This came as a heavy blow to the Carlists who nevertheless kept up the fight and forced the liberal government to seek aid from abroad. However, the arrival of British, French and Portuguese troops had little impact on the situation. On the contrary the slaughter of monks in Madrid, the division of Spain from its historic kingdoms into a network of provinces, the restoration of the Constitution of 1812 and the confiscation of communal property of church and city councils, further inflamed the Carlists.
In 1837 General Miguel Gómez attempted to spread the Carlist insurgency across Spain, while in May of that year the Carlist pretender himself took charge of a royal expedition. In September Carlos’s forces reached the gates of Madrid and attempted to negotiate an agreement with the regent María Cristina, whose position was threatened by radical sectors of the liberal party. The initiative failed and after returning to the Basque Country in 1838 Carlos placed General Rafael Maroto in charge of the army. Maroto was also in favour of a negotiated peace and opened talks with the liberal commander-inchief Baldomero Espartero. The plan was for both Don Carlos and María Cristina to leave the country, arrange for Isabel to marry a son of the pretender Carlos, declare a general amnesty, uphold the fueros and proclaim a constitution offering territorial decentralisation.
Maroto’s plan caused deep divisions in the Carlist ranks and the general, fearing a rebellion, ordered the execution of three hostile generals, which only served to further alienate his opponents. Espartero took advantage of this weakness to penetrate Carlist territory from Santander in the north. In the summer of 1839 Maroto was in greater fear of dissent in his own ranks than attacks from the liberals and on 31 August he and Espartero negotiated the Abrazo de Vergara, an accord that offered a vague promise to respect the fueros. For many Carlists this represented a betrayal, and although fighting continued in Catalonia the war ended when Don Carlos crossed the French border into voluntary exile. However the underlying problem remained unresolved and the Carlists would rise again in 1846 and, above all in 1872, when they were to set up a Carlist state in the north of Spain.
“THE MOMENT HAD NOW ARRIVED FOR THE REBELS TO SET OUT TO CONQUER A MAJOR CITY THAT THEY COULD DESIGNATE AS THEIR CAPITAL” Irish forces of the British Legion take the Gate of Behobia in the border city of Irun on 17 May 1837